Lac La Biche County officials are still working on fixing the deficiencies in municipal accounts and will be putting together an interim budget until everything is fixed, said the county spokesperson.
Items that have been taken care of include accounts payable, GST rebates, and insurance, said Shadia Amblie, manager of communications for the county. They have also started reconciling the banks, she said.
“We’re not fully reconciled to date, but we are starting to reconcile,” Amblie said, adding that she can’t say how many months of missed record-taking have been caught up so far.
Because of significant gaps in accounting and bookkeeping throughout the year, the county could not report on their financial situation in early November, stated a report prepared by Finance Manger Maurice Gushta released on Nov. 1.
“The deficiencies in the accounts of the County are so significant, that presentation of any financial reports would be misleading,” the report stated.
According to the report, proper records weren’t being kept of invoices, purchase orders, payrolls, or revenues for about a year. This sort of situation increases the risk of fraud, said Ward 7 Councillor Gail Broadbent, who is also a certified general accountant, in a previous interview.
“It’s always a concern,” Broadbent said. “That’s why you want to have all those controls and systems in place so it minimizes the risk.”
To date, there have been no signs of fraud or misappropriation, both Amblie and Broadbent said.
But because of the situation, budget planning for 2012 had to be delayed until next year. Meanwhile, an interim budget will be started as early as the first week of December, Amblie said.
“We’re meeting with council to talk about our capital projects and will identify our priorities,” she said. “And that’s how we’ll start rolling out our budget is by identifying where the priorities are.”
Engineering costs will be considered first, since planning for projects like road construction have to be done in the winter before work can be started in the springtime, she said.